Chapter 4 Test Flashcards
What is the difference between sensation and perception?
Perception follows sensation. Sensation is the sensory organs and neural impulses detecting something. Perception is the interpretation and analysis of sensation
What is bottom-up and top-down processing?
Top-Down: Development of pattern recognition with use of context clues
Bottom up: Development of perception solely through sensory information
What is selective attention?
Ability to attend to only a limited amount of sensory information at a time(related to multitasking and whether we can do it or not)
What is inattentional blindness?
psychological lack of attention to something due do already being focused on something else(think of gorilla in video)
What is change blindness?
A phenomenon the occurs when a visual change is introduced but isn’t noticed by the observer
What is absolute threshold?
The intensity of a stimulus required for someone to sense it 50% of the time
What is the signal detection theory?
A theory stating that the detection of a stimulus depends on the intensity of the stimulus and the physical/psychological state of the individual that may or may not sense it
What are subliminal messages?
A signal or message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception that is supposed to be undetected consciously but detected unconsciously
What does it mean to prime someones memory? What is an example of it?
An unconscious form of human memory concerned with perceptual identification of words/objects. Priming involves activating particular representations of words or objects in this form of memory before performing a task. An example is that if you show a person the color yellow before being asked to identifying seeing a banana, they will identify the banana faster because they saw the color yellow
What is Weber’s Law?
A law stating that when stimuli make a change that is just noticeable, the stimuli must differ by a proportional amount, not a constant amount
What is transduction?
The process of turning sensory information into neural impulses for the brain and the nervous system to process
What is the trichromatic color theory?
A theory that says we have three types of cones in our retina. We have cones that detect red, blue and green and from a combination of those three colors we can see almost every color
What is the opponent process theory?
A theory that states that we have three types of receptor cones and they each handle a pair of colors (red/green, yellow/blue, and black/white). If one sensor/color is firing, it slows the other from firing. The theory does a good job at explaining afterimages and color blindness
What are feature detectors?
Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus such as shape angle or movement
What are rods and cones?
Rods: Responsible for vision at low light levels, low color, low spatial acuity
Cones: Responsible for vision at high levels of light, capable of color vision and have high spatial acuity
Foveal vision?
Foveal vision refers to vision in the center of the field of vision, where visual acuity is at its highest.
What is conductive hearing loss? Is is treatable?
Conductive hearing loss occurs when there is a problem conducting sound waves anywhere along the route through the outer ear or middle ear. Implants/repairs are possible
What is sensorineural hearing loss? Is it treatable?
Hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear or the nerve from the ear to the brain(can not be repaired, from concerts, loud sounds, etc)
What is your Vestibular sense? Where is it located?
Your Vestibular sense senses the orientation of your body, located in the inner ear.
What is the Gate Control theory?
A theory about pain perception indicates that the spinal cord contains a type of neurological “gate” which opens and closes to either allow or block pain signals to travel to the brain.
What is sensory interaction?
Sensory interaction refers to the interaction of the senses to each other and how they influence each other. Taste and smell are two senses that work together
What is perceptual organization?
A set of principles developed by Gestalt psychologists to explain how smaller objects are grouped to form larger ones
What is Gestalt psychology?
A school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component. Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of more complex systems
What is figure ground?
A type of perceptual grouping which is a vital necessity for recognizing objects through vision. In Gestalt psychology it is known as identifying a figure from the background.
What is grouping?
The tendency of humans to organize stimuli into coherent groups to help maintain information
What are binocular cues?
Information taken in by both eyes that enable us to have depth perception
What are monocular cues?
Cues sensed by one of the two eyes to help develop depth perception, such as shape and size
What is the Phi Phenomenon?
A visual illusion where lights blinking next to each other appear to be moving.
What is perceptual adaptation?
The ability of the body to adapt to a new environment by filtering out distractions
What are the types of constancies?
Size, shape, distance, color
What is a perceptual set?
a predisposition to perceive things a certain way
What roles do binocular and monocular cues serve in judging depth perception?
Monocular- Size, grain, motion parallax
Binocular-Eye convergence, disparity, and yield depth
Explain the term perceptual adaptation. Use a real world example (NOT from the book).
Perceptual adaptation is your body’s ability to adapt its focus onto a new environment by filtering out distractions. An example is turning off the lights, over time you are able to see better and better in the dark because your eyes are adapting to the new level of light
